February 2022

Overpaying and Undersaving? Correlated Mistakes in Retirement Saving and Health Insurance Choices

Overpaying and Undersaving? Correlated Mistakes in Retirement Saving and Health Insurance Choices

By Leora Friedberg & Adam Leive Not everyone makes wise financial choices. A large body of research documents behavior inconsistent with well-informed consumers maximizing their expected utility of consumption. It remains unknown, however, whether such behavior is correlated across domains. This paper uses two novel datasets to test whether the quality of health insurance and retirement saving decisions are correlated. Using administrative panel data from a large employer, we find that people who overpay for health insurance by choosing a...

How the Pandemic Altered Americans’ Debt Burden and Retirement Readiness

How the Pandemic Altered Americans’ Debt Burden and Retirement Readiness

By Andrea Hasler, Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell This paper analyzes Americans’ perceptions of being debt constrained. We focus on which population subgroups reported feeling most debt constrained, how this perception was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it relates to financial literacy and retirement readiness. To this end, we analyze two datasets, namely the 2020 and 2021 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index files (P-Fin Index). The evidence shows that, prior to and during the pandemic, one in...

Investors, governments act on Russia’s escalation in Ukraine

AkademikerPension, Gentofte, Denmark, is halting some Russian investments as the situation with Ukraine escalates, the pension fund said in a statement Tuesday. The evolving situation in Ukraine prompted several government moves. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson informed Parliament Tuesday that sanctions will be imposed on five Russian banks and three high-net-wealth individuals. Mr. Johnson described it as "the first tranche" of sanctions. U.S. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. is imposing sanctions targeting Russia’s sale of sovereign debt abroad...

UK. Auto-enrolment contribution rates need to rise to 12%, expert tells MPs

Auto-enrolment contributions need to rise to 12 per cent of earnings from the current 8 per cent, but this change should not be rushed through, MPs have been told. Speaking to the work and pensions committee this morning (February 23), Nigel Peaple, director of policy and advocacy at the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association, said auto-enrolment pensions “work really well”, while the voluntary saving side simply “hasn't come through”. “We believe the answer is to increase the automatic enrolment contributions,” said...

China starts nationwide pooling of basic pension funds

China has started nationwide pooling of basic pension funds since Jan. 1 this year, Vice Minister of Finance Yu Weiping said Tuesday. Read also China to allow more pension providers The move will allow pension funds to be transfered from regions with surplus to regions with deficit, Yu said at a press conference, adding the ministry is drawing up related documents and will strengthen guidance to localities. Read also China releases 5-year plan for elderly care services Qi Tao, an official from the...

España. El Gobierno aprueba el fondo público de pensiones, que pasará al Congreso sin el aval de los agentes sociales

España. El Gobierno aprueba el fondo público de pensiones, que pasará al Congreso sin el aval de los agentes sociales

El Consejo de Ministros ha aprobado este martes el proyecto de ley de Regulación para el Impulso de los Planes de Pensiones de Empleo, el conocido como fondo público de pensiones, que tiene como objetivo fomentar el ahorro complementario a la pensión de jubilación de los trabajadores de rentas medias y bajas, los autónomos y las pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes), y lo ha remitido a las Cortes Generales para su tramitación parlamentaria. La norma ya recibió el visto bueno...

Kenya. Gov’t Urged To Make Retirement Scheme Mandatory

The Association of Pension Trustee and Administrators of Kenya (APTAK) wants the government to make pension schemes mandatory for all Kenyans to encourage the culture of saving. Speaking during the 1st annual International APTAK conference on Wednesday, President of the Association Hosea Kili said that many Kenyans face poverty upon retirement as they fall short of adequate savings. Kili said the social security fund should be made a mandatory requirement by urging Kenyans to save just as the government did with...

México. Analiza el gobierno crear un fondo para la salud y la pensión de periodistas

México. Analiza el gobierno crear un fondo para la salud y la pensión de periodistas

Frente a las dificultades económicas y salariales de la mayoría de los reporteros en el país, el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador estudia destinar un porcentaje del gasto de publicidad gubernamental para integrar un fondo “que permita a los periodistas tener garantizado el derecho a la salud y a su pensión”. En su conferencia matutina, el mandatario expuso que enfrenta una campaña mediática de fondo, “ni siquiera es un asunto personal o periodístico, es una disputa por la nación. Es...

South Africa. Pension funds may now invest up to 45% of their capital offshore

During his budget address to parliament, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said amendments to Regulation 28 would be published in March. Regulation 28 sets out the criteria and maximum limits of where and in which asset classes retirement funds may invest. The Budget Review document announced that local pension and savings funds may invest up to 45% of their capital offshore. This is inclusive of the 10% allowance for investments into other African countries. The proposed amendments have been through two rounds...

AI for social protection: Mind the people

The technology that allowed passengers to ride elevators without an operator was tested and ready for deployment in the 1890s. But it was only after the elevator operators’ strike of 1946—which cost New York City $100 million—that automated elevators started to get installed. It took more than 50 years to persuade people that they were as safe and as convenient as those operated by humans. The promise of radical changes from new technologies has often overshadowed the human factor...